Binoculars Are Lit | A Scimatics Project
Hi y’all welcome back to my blog. Today I will be reflecting on a project that we just recently just completed called Metaphor Machines. Have you ever seen any of those super cool “trick shot” videos? Well, this is basically what it is, except our machine would have to have a metaphor to the scientific method. In this project, I was in a group with Felix and Noah.
The first competency that we were being assessed on was questioning and predicting. Which means demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest. In this project, it just basically means that we would always use class time efficiently without any distractions. To be honest, there were a few times where I would go off and talk to some of my classmates around me for a little while. But overall, my group and I would get what we needed to get done and I was pretty happy with how our metaphor machine worked.
Our second competency that we were being assessed on in this project was reasoning and analyzing, meaning estimating reasonably. In this project, this was about our final blueprint for our metaphor machine and if it was complete and accurate. I think that we definitely met this competency because it had a grid scale, all measurement were labeled very accurately and all the lines were easy to be distinguished. Here is our blueprint:
Our next competency that we were being assessed on in this project was planning and conducting. In this project, it meant that we had a hand built series and parallel circuits which were used with efficiency in our metaphor machine. In our blueprints, also having accurate circuit diagrams, diagrams with proper symbols, neat and easy to understand diagrams and having our measurements of current, voltage and resistance. You can certainly cross all of those things on your list because they are all done. Although, we did have a little problem with our measurements, they were all fixed and included on our blueprint.
Our final competency that we were being assessed on in this project was scientific communication: formulate physical or mental models to describe a phenomenon. In this project, it meant that we would have a video recorded of our complete operation of the machine and voice overs added in there which explain the sequence of the scientific method as the machine progresses. We had completed this video, filmed by me, edited and voice overs by Noah. Here it is:
Overall, I really enjoyed this project. Although my group and I sort of had a struggle at the beginning, we were working pretty well together at the end. We all had our own skills to contribute into the project and use them to make an amazing final product; our machine! If I were to do this project again though, I would make our lights from our circuits turn on at different times instead of at the same time and also, personally, I would try to make the machine look “prettier” just as a detail.